Faced with skyrocketing water consumption, Joburg has turned to the City of Cape Town for lessons in reducing water use.
Several parts of Johannesburg regularly find themselves without water supply due to infrastructure shortcomings including leaks and pipe bursts as the city faces a growing water crisis.
With Johannesburg Water now imposing its “aggressive water demand management interventions” including level one restrictions and water throttling since last month, a team from Cape Town shared lessons with the city of gold on what it did to get water consumption down.
The City of Joburg plans to intensify its water demand reduction efforts to cut consumption, which is now about 1,500ml/day to 1,600ml/d, by the end of the year.
Gugulethu Phakathi, Johannesburg Water's COO, said they received a presentation from a City of Cape Town team as they seek to emulate what the Mother City achieved.
“We have had several meetings with [a team from] Cape Town to understand what they have done. They have done a presentation to reflect on how they were able manage water demand,” Phakathi said.
Phakathi was part of a roundtable discussion held by the entity led by its MD, Ntshavheni Mukwevho, with members of the media in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
About six years ago, Cape Town was on the verge of running out of water due to drought and low dam levels.
“As we speak today, we are sitting at 1,560ml/d and that has contributed ... at our highest we were at 1,700ml/d in October,” Phakathi said.
Phakathi said they aim to reduce water supply to 1,350ml/d by September 2025.
“Residents need to do their part to assist us in the reduction of water demand,” she said.
Phakathi said December tends to be a low water demand period as tertiary education institutions are closed while migrant workers often return home for the festive season.
More than a decade ago, Cape Town developed a successful Water Demand Management and Water Conservation policy and strategy based on the outcome of an earlier water study. The plan was successful in helping the Mother City manage water consumption and meet the fast-growing water demand.
“If we can achieve the water-reduction levels by our September 2025 target, we should go back to normal [without any water supply restrictions],” Phakathi said.
Mukwevho said Joburg, which records 46.2% non-revenue water losses due to unbilled meters and consumption (11.7%), physical water losses (24.8%) and commercial losses (9.7%), urgently needs to bring water demand under control.
He said 27 new reservoirs were at various stages including planning and construction and would assist in addressing infrastructure backlogs.
Mukwevho said one reservoir and two water towers were now at construction stage while nine others were at procurement level.
“These reservoirs will provide an additional 514 megalitres of storage capacity, which will provide an additional 26% and an additional seven hours (of storage) at the current levels of demand,” Mukwevho said.
The entity faces dire infrastructure backlogs that have failed to keep up with a fast-growing population and increased demand for water.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.